Blue White Illustrated

B etween the wrestlers winning yet an- other national championship, the football team winning the Fiesta Bowl and the men's basketball team claiming its second NIT crown, it's been a very good year for team accomplishments at Penn State. So good, in fact, that it would be easy to overlook a recent series of impressive individ- ual accomplishments. Let's not do that. Let's instead spotlight a few of those school- history-making per- formances, starting with Ally McHugh's showing at the NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships in March. A junior from Philadelphia and a member of the U.S. national team, McHugh was com- ing off a first-place performance at Big Tens in the 1,650-meter freestyle. Her time at that meet – 15 minutes, 43.34 seconds – was a school record and was second na- tionally this year, trailing only the 15:03.31 that five-time Olympic champion and cur- rent Stanford sophomore Katie Ledecky swam in November. McHugh bettered that performance at NCAAs, finishing in 15:36.27. Ledecky took first place in 15:07.57, but McHugh's second-place showing was the highest ever by a Penn State swimmer at nationals. "It was a big moment, and not only did she handle it well, she crushed it," coach Tim Murphy said. "It was just so fun to watch." With Ledecky setting the pace, McHugh had to resist the urge to start out too fast. She did that, and in the process became Penn State's first first-team All- American since 2015. "Going into it I just wanted to have a lot of fun," she said. "I was feeling really good in warm-ups and I was excited to race some really fast girls in my first A-finals at the national championships. I was just trying to swim my race plan and it went really well, so I'm really happy with it." McHugh was Penn State's only NCAA qualifier, but with her performance in the 1,650 freestyle and ninth-place finish in the 500 free, she single-handedly earned the Nittany Lions the 29th spot in the final standings. Another school record fell when mid- dle-distance standout Danae Rivers of the track and field team shaved nearly six seconds off her previous best time in the 1,500-meter race. Competing at the Florida Relays in March, Rivers finished in 4:10.82, good for third place. Her time broke Marta Klebe's Penn State record, which had stood since 2014. Rivers, a sophomore from Derby, Conn., said that after 600 meters she was begin- ning to feel her stamina start to ebb, but she powered through to the finish. "At that point, it's mind over matter," she said. "I was just telling my body to breathe." And about that school record? Said Rivers, "It feels pretty good." Another Penn State athlete took center stage when Briannah Tsang turned in a career-best score of 9.950 to share the floor exercise title at the Big Ten Women's Gymnastics Championships in March. It was the fifth-highest score in Penn State history, and in recognition of her per- formance, Tsang was later named Big Ten Co-Gymnast of the Year. A native of Van- couver, British Columbia, she shared the honor with Michigan's Paige Zaziski. ■ IN THE SPOTLIGHT Ally McHugh's showing at NCAAs is one of several recent star turns by PSU athletes | VARSITY VIEWS McHUGH MEN'S GYMNASTICS Pantazis, Nedoroscik win Big Ten individual titles Two Penn State athletes won individ- ual titles at the Big Ten championships April 7 at Michigan. Freshman Brennan Pantazis won the

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